Pavlo Skoropadsky

Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadsky (15 May 1873-26 April 1945) was a Ukrainian general, noble, and statesman who served as Grand Hetman (Dictator) of Ukraine from 29 April to 14 December 1918, succeeding Mykhailo Hrushevsky and preceding Volodymyr Vynnychenko. Skoropadsky seized power as head of state in a German-backed conservative coup against the Central Rada in April 1918, but the end of World War I in November 1918 and the German withdrawal from Kiev in December forced Skoropadsky to go into exile rather than be overthrown by the increasingly-powerful Bolsheviks.

Biography
Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadsky was born in Wiesbaden, German Empire on 15 May 1873, the son of an Imperial Russian Army cavalry colonel. Skoropadsky followed in his father's footsteps by joining the army in 1891, and he rose to the rank of Colonel after serving in the Russo-Japanese War; he was also appointed aide-de-camp to Czar Nicholas II. In 1911, he was promoted to Major-General and given command of a cavalry regiment in the Czar's Horse Guard. During World War I, he rose from a cavalry brigade command to a cavalry division command and later corps command, fighting on the East Prussian front. Following the Russian Revolution, Skoropadsky oversaw the Ukrainization of the 34th Corps as the 1st Ukrainian Corps in the army of the Ukrainian National Republic. In October 1917, he was elected honorary Hetman of the Free Cossacks, and, in November, he led his 60,000-strong 1st Corps to disarm Bolshevik soldiers returning from Romania, thus preventing them from attacking Kiev.

Skoropadsky later led a right-wing conspiracy against the leftist Verkhovna Rada, and, on 24 April 1918, the German Empire assured Skoropadsky of its support. On 29 April, the German-backed coup was successful, and Skoropadsky became Hetman of the Ukrainian State, dissolving the Central Rada and all land committees, revoking reforms, and censoring the press. Dissatisfaction against the Hetman's oppressive rule and his alliance with the White movement during the Russian Civil War led to the Bolsheviks provoking an uprising against the conservative Ukrainian government, leading to agrarian rebellions, strikes, sabotage of infrastructure, and even the assassination of German field marshal Hermann von Eichhorn. On 14 December 1918, the withdrawal of German troops from Kiev at the end of World War I forced Skoropadsky to flee into exile, fleeing to Germany via Switzerland. He founded an international hetman organization, and he developed links to reactionary junker circles while living in Wannsee, Germany. During World War II, he lobbied for Nazi Germany to release imprisoned Ukrainian nationalists from concentration camps after Operation Barbarossa. On 26 April 1945, he was killed in an Allied air raid on the Plattling railway station in Bavaria, and he was buried at his birthplace of Wiesbaden.